In an update to a story we first reported on March 26th, the petition filed by the Community Broadcasters Association to halt the DTV Converter Box program's sale of boxes without "analog pass-through" was dismissed yesterday in an unsigned opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The CBA is composed of Low Power TV and Class A stations, which are not required to be carried by cable television providers in their communities and are viewed over the air. However, unlike the major broadcast stations (which the cable companies are required to carry), these stations are not required by law to make the switch to Digital Television technology next February. The converter box program provides coupons for equipment to enable households to use their existing television sets to view the digital signals after the transition date, but does not require the boxes to have a "pass-through" mechanism which would allow the viewing of the remaining analog signals from the CBA's member broadcasters.
Although the specifications for coupon-eligible boxes allow for the option of such a mechanism, the CBA noted today in a press release that not a single converter box with a "pass-through" is available on store shelves, and that their petition for a declaratory ruling on the legality of the offending converter boxes remains before the FCC, although it has not yet been assigned a docket number.
However, there is an alternative should the converter box program go ahead as planned. In their release and according to lead counsel Peter Tannenwald of Fletcher, Heald and Hildreth, the CBA would seek funds from Congress to expand to all LPTV and Class A stations an existing program which facilitates a switch to DTV technology by a very limited number of LPTV broadcasters in very small communities. This alternative, according to both the CBA's release and Tannenwald, would allow the transition to take place smoothly and provide another solution to the problem.
LPTV and Class A TV stations and translators are widely viewed by rural and language minority households, which the FCC has identified as "priority targets" for consumer education efforts during the DTV Transition process, according to testimony by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin at a recent heading before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
Update 5:25pm 5/8/08: We spoke to CBA Lead Counsel Peter Tannenwald about the Court's decision and the CBA's plans. Correction: when I first refer to the petition for a declaratory ruling before the Court, I should have referred to it as a petition for a writ of mandamus. The petition for a declaratory ruling is before the FCC, not the Court.
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